NE Hardwood

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

I'm not sure if people scrolled down to see this in my other post, so moved it here.

Here's another new one from my grab bag last week. Hard, heavy, smells very strong, kind of minty like ash but certainly not ash. It is straight grained but bounced my axe on the first swing. It has a mushy outer sapwood.

Any ideas?

 

[KJamesJR]

Looks like Cherry or Apple. I just had this dilemma with red oak. Couldn’t tell because there was no bark. But that looks like cherry bark.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Hmm interesting. I grabbed it thinking it was red maple. That's kind of what the bark looks like, but heartwood says it's certainly not maple. I don't believe it's cherry either. It has a strong minty kind of smell and very clear rings in the x-section. Much heavier and harder. I'm not sure if it comes out in the picture but it is almost a pink or salmon color.

 

[Dtunes]

If it smells like wintergeen and looks like cherry you probably have black birch also called "sweet birch" or "cherry birch". Great firewood, similar btus as oak but seasons faster. My personal favorite, love the smell when cutting or burning.

 

[Knots]

That's a tough one. Does not look like any maple to me.

Did this come out of the woods or a yard? Any chance it's an ornamental someone planted?

 

[Locust99]

If it smells like wintergreen and it’s hard to split its black birch. Although that grain looks redder than what I typically see from black birch.

 

[JSeery]

The minty smell is also making me think of black birch, and older black birch trees can get that kind of scaly bark. However, black birch bark is almost like a solid shell - it doesn't typically have that stringy under-layer I'm seeing in the pictures. This is a tough one, as the bark almost looks like white oak but nothing else in the description matches that either.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

I might slice a small section and inspect the end grain. Very confused. The smell could be some type of decay but the wood looks in good shape.

 

[ZZ Tom]

When I hear pink or salmon colored wood my first thought is domesticated thorn-less honey locust. The bark looks similar enough, the bark on locust changes a lot as the tree matures. I just don't recall a minty smell. Let it dry for two or three years and you'll have hard, heavy, mostly straight grained salmon colored coal.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

I grabbed one of the small splits. The "minty" clue may be misleading. More it has a strong musty smell. Which may just be age and condition.

I prepped the end grain. I think HL (thornless) matches the grain the most. Very thin but visible rays, grouped parenchyma. No flame tracks or large rays like either oak groups. Does not scratch at all with nail. That was my initial guess but I kept changing my mind.

Compare with some of these HL grain pictures online: